Whixh is the best Linux Distribution for a fairly advanced user?

[fatboy]

I would like to install Linux on my old pentium but was wondering which was the best distribution. i hear that Red Hat is popular but apparently Mandrake is better. I'll mostly use the PC for multimedia and a bit of gaming.

As always your help will be much appreciated.

Fatboy

[Unsecured Loner]

Mandrake is basically Redhat, with a few user-friendly customizations. I haven't tried to install Redhat since about 5.1 and it was a nightmare. Mandrake 6.1 and 7.0 installed much easier, but not without a few vocabulary-expanding glitches, and I'm an advanced Windows user.

If you want to go hardcore, try the Debian or Slackware distributions. Or better yet, try FreeBSD. It's basically Unix but runs most Linux apps.

[a Bill]

Advanced users use Slackware or Debian. Beginners should stick with Mandrake or Redhat. FreeBSD is pretty easy to use to but maybe it's just me. I am not an advanced user, I am the perpetual newbie http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

The more I learn, the dumber I get http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

Solaris 7 is pretty good too, as is BeOS and that Mac OSX thing (I have the developers version on a G4). Yep, I use them all, seperate computers, no multiboots. It's my job. Mac OS 9 is no slouch either.

[CMonster]

The Linux kernel is the Linux kernel is the Linux kernel - no matter how you dress it up, you can put a KDE or Gnome face on it and add this application or that but it's all still Linux.

Redhat 6.2, Caldera 2.4, and Mandrake 7 are all just excellent distributions. The only distribution I would stay away from is Corel. It doesn't come with a wealth of applications, devolopment tools, or libraries, and their install trys to take too much control from the user - in other words it is hard to customize on install.

PS - you probably won't be doing a lot of multimedia or gaming with Linux.

[This message has been edited by CMonster (edited 04-21-2000).]

[mrdisco]

Check out the "Linux Newbie" thread in this forum. I did a quick description of the major distributions.

Mandrake and Corel are supposed to be great for newbies, but may frustrate advanced users. For an advanced distro, I'd reccomend Red Hat or Debian. Red Hat is a good all-around distribution and despite its moderate user-friendliness is also very flexible.

Debian includes everything and the kitchen sink, but may be difficult for newbies. Debian also consists entirely of free software, so you can use it and distribute it without restrictions. Other distributions pack some proprietary software along with free software, complicating things. I keep saying I'll switch from Red Hat to Debian, but their slow release schedule has kept me from doing so. That's probably the most annoying attribute of this distribution.

[RobRich]

I personally would go for Slackware 7.0. Slackware is harder to setup and use, but it's code and interface is closer to Unix than any other Linux distribution there is.

I personaly have either Slackware 4.5, Redhate 6.1, or TurboLinux installed on my system most of the time.

Also, as noted above, Linux has very few games for it, and support for most multimedia hardware limiited. Do some serious research before going this route. A better alternative might be BeOS, which has some decent multimedia capabilites.

[happyhamster]

Linux at this point isn't particularly suited for multimedia or games. It's gotten a few basic apps of these types in the last years, but still nothing comparable to Windwos with its Adobe family and Directx games, especially for advanced usage. For multimedia, seriously consider BeOS. As of games, you won't get much of them on anything but windows.

I'm not downplaying linux here, I've run redhat, caldera, corel and mandrake myself. I'm just trying to save you time and disappointment.

[This message has been edited by happyhamster (edited 04-21-2000).]

[fatboy]

Cheers for all your help people, I will definately take a look at BeOS.

Which of the two is better for networking do you know?

Thanx

[a Bill]

BeOS allows your computer to be networked but it can't hold a candle to the various flavors of Unix.

[mrdisco]

BeOS has potential, but it still is not a fully supported OS. You'll find lots of hardware compatibility issues as well has software availability problems. It's nice to experiment with, but if you plan on actually doing anything with it you'll have a hard time.